i diari della lambretta: Collezione Salce, vintage poster museum in Treviso

there was a time when advertising posters were artworks. I am clearly just one of the many fans of this almost lost form of art (as I stated many times).

Mr. Nando Salce was a bright and wealthy man who had been playing in the adverts lovers team in the best possible way: born in 1877 in Treviso, at the age of 17 years he started to collect affiches and continued doing that till his death in 1962. with his will, he donated the entire collection of more than 25.000 posters to the Italian state.

a few weeks ago, a new museum finally opened in the historic center of Treviso: Collezione Salce, so now we can all enjoy the artworks and share Mr. Salce's passion.

arriving to Collezione Salce museum in Treviso

Marco and I went to visit the Collezione on a sunny sunday morning, by lambretta (it's a quick ride from our home in Vittorio Veneto, less than 40 minutes). the museum is currently displaying an exposition dedicated to the Belle Époque, featuring posters from the end of the nineteenth century to WW1.

Collezione Salce - Liquore Strega, 1905

Collezione Salce - la Settimana Umoristica, 1900

the collection is an anthology of advertising graphics that has a significant importance for both quantitative and qualitative reasons, with pieces from all around the world featuring different themes, and a good selection of posters from the "golden age" of italian affiche (1896-1915), which coincides with the time of the Belle Epoque, a moment of changing, of optimism and joie de vivre.

among my personal favourites there were posters advertising bicycles and drinks, like italian bitters, champagne and absinthe, but I know there are a few lambretta adverts in the Salce collection, too, and I'd love to see them in a future exhibition.

the whole Salce collection has been digitized and it's available here.